HEIRS TO A FREE SOCIETY...SHUT UP GEORGE BUSH

In his speech today at Arlington National Cemetery, George W Bush said that the veterans buried there had created a legacy which allowed for the continuance of a "free civilization."

But who is this society free for? And what society is that?

After almost 8 years of war against a diverse group of culturally supported enemies, we have managed to alienate ourselves from everyone in the world except those countries economically or militarily dependent on us and nations which have abhorrent records of human rights violations. These are the nations we choose to ally ourselves with more out of corporate interests than any interest in a strong long-term economy here in the US. It is also a war instigated and led by an infantile child of a president in part to make up for his father's failings and in part to satisfy his friends in executive offices. That is after the people of the US made clear statements of their stance against the war, a stance ignored by a wealthy president too concerned with his own power than fulfilling his sworn duties to the people of the country he leads.

So in the end, are those people who died fighting for a society where a president ignores the best interest of the nation in order to solidify his power and pander to his corporate friends, and in which freedom is defined more by our choices in consumer spending than our support of quality public education, a healthy environment, equal rights, an effective widely available health care system, etc etc? How free are we when our civilization is defined by major periods of war rather than intellectual advancements or by innovations in raising the quality of living for the majority of our own citizens, much less the globe? Or where we are free to express our opinions and yet a vastly diverse gathering of a million citizens is ignored or invalidated as radical when they march on Washington to stand against an unjust war?

Today's Memorial Day, and George W Bush has personally added more than 4,000 men and women to the National Cemetary, in addition to tens of thousands of unacknowledged others in graves across Iraq and Afghanistan.